Obama, did you hear us knocking?

If you received word that there was a group of people walking 3,000 miles across the United States, and their end destination was your house, would you take the time to greet them when they arrived? If one of these cross-country adventurers wrote you a letter every day of this journey, describing to you in detail the lands she traveled through and the beautiful stories of the hundreds of people she met, would you write back to her?

Arrested for the First Time at XL Dissent

 “Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.”

― Howard Zinn

** This blog post and my action of civil disobedience are dedicated to the amazing people who took the first steps in a very long walk on March 1st in the Great March for Climate Action. Good luck to all of you and I can't wait to join you in New Mexico in May. The next time I will be in Washington, D.C. will be in November after walking 2,000 miles to get there. www.climatemarch.org If you are interested in helping me on my cross-country journey, email me at viridorari@yahoo.com. You can donate online at anytime here.   

**This also happens to be my 100th post on Viridorari :) I also recently reached 10,000 views. Thank you everyone! 

It felt like a dream as I pulled up to the quaint house tucked away in a lovely neighborhood in Columbia, Maryland. A little over a half a year earlier I had pulled out of that same driveway and began a long six hour drive home by myself, saddened by the idea that I might never see my new friends again. But here I was, showing up at four in the morning with little more than a week's notice with two fellow travelers peering with sleepy eyes out the windshield at the front door of the house.  

I turned off the car and we gathered our things. As we approached the front door Ron opened it for us. We had called them a half an hour ago at their request so that they could be awake to greet us at this ungodly hour. I gave Ron a huge hug, and I would have given RoseMarie one too, but she politely declined because she was sick and didn't want me to catch whatever she had. I introduced them to Katharine and Bill, who originally got in touch with me over an online ride board.

RoseMarie quickly transformed into super-host, showing us to our rooms, providing us with snacks she had prepared specially for our arrival, and asking us what we wanted for breakfast in the morning. She had even put out three different colored sets of towels in the bathroom, one for each of us to choose from. Ron gave us maps and pamphlets to help with navigating the city. Katharine gave me an astonished look that said: "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said they were amazing!"

After driving for a little over five hours straight after a full day of class and work, the guest bed felt like a cloud. But I couldn't fall asleep for almost another half hour; I was too excited. When I woke up in just a few hours I would be heading into Washington, D.C. to be arrested in a peaceful protest.

XL Dissent: Are You Doing Enough?

Hey all, the following is a post I wrote for the XL Dissent website — xldissent.org. XL Dissent is a student/youth led event that is happening this Sunday, March 2nd, in Washington, D.C. So far, over 1,000 youth are expected to come to the event, and about 300 of us (including myself) will be risking arrest by staging a sit-in in front of the White House. This is to protest the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Bill McKibben, a leading environmentalist, being arrested for protesting the KXL Pipeline in front of the White House using civil disobedience (2011). 

Picture courtesy of: http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/08/20/300275/keystone-xl-tar-sands-action-day-one/#

This may be the first time I will be arrested for the cause, but I don't expect it to be my last. I will be dedicating this action to my friends in the Great March for Climate Action, who will begin their amazing journey from California on Saturday, March 1st. Learn more about the cross-country walk at climatemarch.org

If you like the post I wrote, be sure to go to the website and browse the posts written by other participants.

Here it is, let me know what you think in the comments:

XL Dissent: Are You Doing Enough?

August 12^th, 2013 was the first time I risked arrest — it was to protest the Keystone XL Pipeline. I left at four in the morning and drove about six hours to Maryland, just outside of D.C., and pulled into a total stranger’s driveway. I sat on the trunk of my car, waiting for him to get home from church, hoping the neighbors wouldn’t get alarmed and call the police in the meantime. Although the idea of lodging with people who I had never met in person was initially a little nerve racking, the kind couple that took me in turned out to be two of the most amazing people I had ever met. My hosts were just one of many incredible parts of that unforgettable weekend.

I am walking 2,000 miles for the planet

I have some very exciting news. While at the Powershift conference in Pittsburgh, PA this past October, I signed up to march a section of the Great March for Climate Action, or the Climate March. The march begins in California in March of 2014, and plans to arrive in Washington D.C. in the following November.

Originally, I planned to only walk from Pittsburgh, PA to D.C. Since I signed up, plans have changed. Now, I am starting in Taos, New Mexico immediately following the end of my spring semester of college. That means I will be walking about 2,000 miles over the course of six months across the country to raise awareness for the global climate crisis and the urgent need for action.

I can’t tell you how excited I am. I will be following in the footsteps of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., women’s rights activists, and nuclear disarmament activists. Yet, my fellow marchers and I will be carving out a path very separate from them. We are fighting a different fight from what our predecessors did, and our work to save the planet might prove to be the most important movement in all of history. We only have one Earth; we can’t afford to ruin it.

I am thrilled to be walking with so many inspiring and amazing people, with ages ranging from 6 to 82 and origins from all over America, as well as El Salvador, Canada, Belize, and Ecuador.

 

Picture courtesy of: http://yellowmaps.com/map/united-states-printable-map-468.htm 

Fundraising

However, I can’t simply join this cause for free. Each marcher is expected to cover his or her own expenses through fundraising, which equates to about $20 for each day we march. I have to raise about $3,800 for my section of the march, as well as the cost for my one-way plane ticket to New Mexico, and a little bit of extra to have on hand for spending/emergencies. Overall, my goal is to raise $4,500.

I need your help to make my dream to stand up for the world we love to come true. I would be eternally grateful if you could contribute to my fundraising in some way, no matter how big or small.